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Seven wins Mel B case

Seven has won the case to prevent Melanie Brown from joining Australia's Got Talent.

2013-04-18_0946Seven has won the case to prevent Melanie Brown from joining Australia’s Got Talent on Nine this year.

The Sydney Supreme Court handed down its decision this morning.

Justice David Hammerschlag gave both parties thirty minutes to look over the judgement to see if they have any objections to publication of his findings.

He also found that Seven’s Brad Lyons was a plausible witness.

A hearing for costs will take place later.

Neither Melanie Brown nor husband and manager, Stephen Belafonte, attended the court this morning.

In a statement Seven said, “Seven Network welcomes the decision of the court upholding its contract with Mel B and preventing her working for a competitor in breach of contract in 2013.”

There is speculation Nine will announce Geri Halliwell as a likely replacement for the show, due to air later this year.

49 Responses

  1. Seriouslysquare – it isn’t as simple as just a different name. Those on X factor are both mentors and judges. On Got Talent they are just judges. On X factor those singers who make it through are very much told what to do, and how to do it by the mentors. They have input but their mentor basically tells them what song they thinkwill be good for them, how they should do their performance, how they should look, etc. on Got Talent all the judges are there for is to judge. They’re not picking songs and going through the rehearsals, and telling them how to do things.

  2. I really hope they take this opportunity to pick an Aussie judge. If they can pick foreign celebs who haven’t done anything since the 90’s, surely there’s plenty of Aussie talent who were big a few years ago who are available. Probably for a lot less money too.

  3. David mel b deserved evrything she got she broke her agreement . She did wrong by seven . Nine should know better .so they are at fault as well. In reality AGT is rubbish it failed in the ratings on seven will do the same on nine . The days of kylie sandilands grubby comments are over .people want a love fest look at the voice

  4. Good luck with Geri Halliwell – maybe Nine should have used that as their defence. “If we don’t win we’ll inflict Geri Halliwell on Australia”.

  5. David, so do you think it was all nice and proper the way it played out. She had visa problems so she dropped X Factor due to the mentoring. Then later got picked for AGT on a rival network. There were no breaking of contract or deception from Mel B (and/or Ch 9)?

    I don’t think so.

  6. mentor… judge… isn’t that like splitting hairs? In Australia’s got talent the judges vote whether you go threw or not… that is a judgement same thing happens with the X factor.

    the voice has true mentors, but again they are judging you on your talent.

    sorry David, but my comment about not having Australian judges stands. it is after all Australia’s got talent, yet there are no talented judges from Australia…

    Maybe the next talent show could be Australia’s top judge… but who would judge that? Judy??

    1. I have no argument about calls to use more Aussie judges. My ‘mento’ line is regarding those who keep asking why visas prevented her inclusion on one show and not another. It’s been written here numerous times.

  7. @ Dave April 18, 2013 at 6:13 pm –
    Why bother with contracts then? Stations pay a great deal of money for particular people to increase their ratings, so if they cant be exclusive don’t expect the big $.

  8. Yeah, Australia’s Got talent wouldn’t be so hard for her to do compared to X factor with all the mentoring. I know there’s contracts and all but it is a bummer she supposedly won’t be doing got talent now. I did really want to see how she worked with Kyle and have a bit of a thing with Dawn French again ( the Spice Girls did quite a bit of things with Dawn French over the years).

    Kinda sad if she just does nothing for the next year because X factor is too time consuming, and now looking like being blocked from 9.

  9. How interesting mel b could not appear on the x factor because of visa issues but she could appear on AGT without any visa issues. Considering both shows are taped in australia how could this be .some ones been telling fibs. The court decision is a correct one . Mel b did the wrong thing by seven. She broke her contract .nice way to treat her employer who made her a star in this country and if it wasnt for her x factor appearancces in this country she would never have got the gig on americas got talent. Clearly she only thinks about herself

  10. Yes!! First the Lords win their case and now this…

    Has the legal profession in this country entered the Twilight Zone? They are starting to make sense.

  11. How long does her contract run for David, because if its still a fair while its not going to be a healthy or possitive working relationship.

  12. Why isn’t anyone commenting on the news you’ve provided re Geri Halliwell?! This seems very likely, considering how close she is with Mel B (they’re always tweeting each other), maybe Mel got her as a back up. Geri was also the biggest Spice Girl back in the day, with her leaving being worldwide news – Nine could use this in a good way. She’s also the most successful solo Spice in Australia with a few top 5 hits here. Not to mention Geri guest judged on X Factor UK last year, there’s some entertaining footage on YouTube of her and Gary Barlow.

    Its a shame, as I liked Mel B’s promotion of Australia with her genuine love for it, but… the move wasn’t fair to Seven.

  13. Well she’s doing the US version of America’s Got Talent or X Factor, so she won’t be out of pocket. Seven will probably just leave her in limbo till her contract is up.

  14. TXF starts filing on Monday, and still no 4th judge, and i have heard that Nat & ronan are also still up in the air despite pretty much being confirmed the other day when danii was confirmed.

  15. How funny would it be to see Kylie Minogue judging Australia’s Got Talent, while Danii is over on The X Factor. I wonder which show would get more viewers…

  16. @seriouslysquare – Kyle isn’t the only Australian judge. There is also Timomatic. He came to fame through So You Think You Can Dance and then a previous series of Australia’s Got Talent.

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